I’ve recently done a full revamp of my novel—working title Valinn—that I started in 2018 and I have THE ENTIRE PLOT planned out now, front to end, book 1 to book 3 (it was only supposed to be 2 books but alas).
My problem has always been that I plot and write the first part of whatever project I’m working on, and then I don’t know where to go from there. I don’t know how the pieces eventually fit together, and I get stuck. SO this time around, I decided I am not allowed to start writing, not a SINGLE WORD, until the ENTIRE plot is finished.
It took about 3 months to collect all my notes from various places, sort and organize them into something cohesive, and solidify the world building and character arcs. That’s 7 years of notes across 6 journals and approximately 10 documents. I have an entire journal filled with world building notes and character details. I have the plot—bulleted out chapter-by-chapter—printed and hand-bound. Book 1 has been partially written, fully written, and now is in the process of being completely overhauled and rewritten again, this time with an ending in mind.
And wouldn’t you know it, this process is yielding results. I am FLYING through my (first?) draft at light speed, like 15K words a week on top of my full time job.
Anyway, I’m just incredibly proud of all the progress I’ve made on this project that has lived mostly in my head for the last 7 years, and I just wanted to yell about it on the internet.
